Got mine yesterday. For some reason it didn't come preloaded with my Amazon account, so I had to load that up, but otherwise it's packaged pretty much like the eink Kindles. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. I mean, it's obviously a version 1.0 product, but I expected that. I didn't expect some really odd design decisions and that even the Amazon media experiences would be disappointing. Some quick thoughts: Good + Very nice screen + Well built + UI looks pretty sharp, obviously this is especially true in the Amazon branded utilities + Linking and accessing Cloud content once registered is painless. + Comics look pretty good + Magazines built for the Fire, like Wired, work pretty well Meh - General sluggishness and lag varies depending on what you are doing. Hardly a deal breaker, but it's obvious it needs some tweaking. - No real consistency on anything in the UI, even on the stuff that's preloaded. ie, sometimes the Back button takes you back a page, sometimes back to the application's main page, sometimes just to the Fire main screen, sometimes nowhere at all. I mean it is literally a back button, but since everything is run from the main Home screen it basically means you have two Home buttons. Just very awkward. - Browser is also 'ok'. For all the talk about the speed of the 'new Silk browser', it doesn't strike me as faster than any other mobile device I've used. I've also had it just stop loading pages, or hang when loading pages. - Related to that, zooming/scrolling is hit or miss. - Video streaming is kinda lousy looking. I've tried a couple movies/shows on both the Amazon video player and the Netflix app. I have a great connection and have used both on other things in the house, so it's not that. I've also had both 'apps' freeze and/or lock up on me. - Some touch interface issues seem to not register or regsiter incorrectly at times. Swiping when you just tap, or things like the back button not registering at all. -App selection sucks, and most of them are attempts at scaled up phone apps. Not surprising and I'm sure that will improve, but I would still have expected Amazon to have a few more Fire tuned things lined up. Whole thing just feels kinda rushed. WTF - No volume buttons - No USB cable included - Power button is no longer a slider, and positioned at the bottom of the Fire and very sensitive. Bad combination. Overall it's certainly not a 'bad' device, and a lot of the things should (hopefully) improve with patches, but it just seems like I said: rushed. I'm a big fan of Amazon and their eink reader is one of my favorite devices, but it feels like a lot more thought went into that Kindle than this. Obviously you can make some concessions at $200, but I'm tired of making those with the Touchpad I got. I'm looking for something to be the tablet I use regularly, and I'm not sure this is it. Honestly, I am still going to give it more time, but I'm not gonna lie: I am going to go into a B&N and take a good look at the Nook tablet now.
Thank you! I was actually gonna buy this tomorrow. Guess I'll stick with the iPad even though I hate it.
I have the hp touchpad but was never using it just due to its size and overall pure sluggishness. (yes i did all the tweaks). I ordered the fire to give it a test drive andI'm pretty impressed. Its certainly missing a few things namely a physical button and volume keys but touching the screen to lower volume etc. is not nearly annoying as some reviews led me to believe. Biggest drawback is that the back button occasionally does weird things like the OP mentioned. Don't have a problem at all with sluggishness actually I find it rather peppy and at least comparable with iPad 1. Never played with iPad 2. Id easily rather pay 200 for this then the 100 I paid for the touchpad. IPad is clearly the superior tablet but we're talking half price here.
I would test it out for yourself different people have different experiences with these things. If you already have an iPad you have no use for it though.
Thanks for the review. I'm looking to get a tablet for my son (young teen) but do not want to spend an arm and a leg. Trying to balance $$$ with capability.
I still have the gen 1. It never stays connected to my Wi-Fi, it's too bulky, no Flash, battery power is horrible. I don't even use it anymore, it just collects dust now.
No flash shouldn't have been a surprise since Apple always claimed they would not support it on the iPad. Too bad about the battery and wi-fi. I have had absolutely no problems with either of those.
Lol. You take one persons opinion to change your mind? Why not read reviews from tech blogs on this, rather than a stranger on a forum?
Too bad that if you root the Fire, you lose the ability to stream Amazon content from your Prime membership. Hmph! Speaking of "Prime" , that ASUS Transformer looks nice as hell. However, if you're not all into specs, get an iPad. That'll do the job just fine.
Just remember, only buy this if you want a cheap, yet decent tablet. If you're expecting ICS/CM7, best look towards a used Xoom/Transformer, Nook Tablet, or even the HP Touchpad.
It already has, and the Market and third party apps are a success but the only thing that kills it for me is the fact that you end up losing amazon prime streaming. I guess I can understand why, but that's the price one pays for trying to make a tablet better. (If you did root your Fire already, you can easily unroot with superoneclick)
